


Midnight

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Series: Transcendent Souls [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: But he loves his son, Don't mess with the Starks, Don't worry, F/M, Hand-wavy resurrection, Howard Stark was a bad father, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Team Tony, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony lives, Wanda is not a good person, dark content, mental manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14158215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: When Howard and Maria are brought back to life, they find the world has changed.But they also find something wrong with Tony. In order to rectify the situation, a furious Howard digs up something he once swore never to use.





	1. Return

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My OCs exist simply to provide information and, in one case, transport.
> 
> This idea just came to me. I'll see how many people work out what Howard intends to use before he actually does. ;)

Howard Stark felt a dull throbbing in his face.

For a moment, he didn’t remember what happened. Then it hit him like a truck. The crash...the pain...crawling from the car...then that face...Howard jerked up with a gasp. For a moment, his head swum. Then his vision righted itself. He found himself sitting up in a bed, in an unfamilar room. His wife lay next to him. He wondered if it was just a dream...if he’d just had a nightmare of Bucky Barnes forcing their car to crash and then murdering them.

...Then he saw the bruises on Maria’s neck.

Leaning down, Howard checked his wife was still breathing. She was, to his relief. Howard studied the bruising and then slowly lifted his hand. He laid his hand over the bruises. _That’s a handprint._ The bastard had wrapped his hand around her throat and strangled her to death while she was stuck helpless in that car.

And he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about it.

Howard slid his arm around his wife’s waist and buried his face into her shoulder. His mind turned over what could have possibly happened. His mind briefly flashed back to his son, slouched and pouting and safe. He hadn’t been with them and that was the one thing Howard was grateful for.

He’d just about calmed himself down when Maria woke with a startled gasp. Her hands clamped to him.

‘It’s all right,’ he whispered. ‘It’s over.’

‘What happened, Howard?’ she whispered. ‘How...?’

‘I don’t know.’ He pulled back and looked down at her. Her eyes immediately focused on the centre of his face. Howard remembered the metal fist slamming into his face. As there was bruising on her neck, there was sure to be bruising on his face. He pressed his lips together and rested his forehead against hers.

‘What about Tony?’ she asked softly.

‘He’s fine,’ Howard whispered. ‘He’s home.’

Maria nodded.

A knock on the door made Howard lean up and Maria turn her head. The door was opened and a white-haired woman walked in, followed by a young blond man who looked somewhere in his 20s. The woman walked with a cane which she didn’t seem to need at present. It took Howard longer than it should have to recognise her.

‘Hazel Jones?’

‘Well, it looks like he remembers you, grandma,’ the young man said, placing the tray he was carrying on the table in the room. ‘I’m gonna get back to work.’ He walked out.

Hazel walked over and sat in the lone chair in the room. ‘It isn’t “Jones” anymore. I got married.’

Howard leaned up. ‘How did we get away?’

Hazel looked him right in the eye and said, ‘You didn’t.’

Howard stared at her in disbelief. Maria’s grip tightened on his arms.

‘We don’t understand how you’ve been resurrected, yet, but you did die that night – 24 years ago.’ The look on her face was one she’d worn expressly when Peg had done something to piss her off. ‘It was covered up as an accident caused by you, Howard, drunk driving.’

Howard sat up completely now. ‘I was stone sober!’

‘I know that,’ Hazel said. ‘And, now, so does Tony.’

‘Tony?’ Maria asked.

‘Yes,’ Hazel said. ‘He’s come a long way. From a moody child prodigy to arguably one of the most important people on the planet right now.’  
Howard was startled at that. _‘You know, they say sarcasm is a metric for potential. If that’s true, you’re gonna be a great man someday.’_ ‘What do you mean?’

Hazel chuckled. ‘We’ve got a portfolio downstairs.’ She gestured to the closet on the side of the room. ‘Once you’ve freshened up a bit, you can come down and I’ll explain.’ She nodded to the tray her grandson had left. ‘There’s coffee if you want some.’ That said, Hazel walked out of the room.

Howard sighed and climbed out of the bed. He went for the coffee while Maria got up and opened the closet. Neither of them said anything. Howard had known Tony would do great things one day – with a brain like that, how could he not? – but he also knew Hazel. The way she said that, it was like there was something...more.

He’d met Hazel in the second World War. She’d been the bastard child of one of the colonels who worked out of the SSR base. Her mother had been nowhere in sight so she’d lived there like the rest of them. After the war, they’d met up again because her father had gotten her a job as a cleaner in a New York museum and she’d frequented the same diner that Peg did.

Hazel had easily explained away her “unbecoming” behaviour with the simple statement of fact: I’m a bastard. Turned out some people expected bastards to be uncivilised and, if they were female, unladylike. It wasn’t fair, but very few perceptions of that era were. When she’d left, in ’49, Peg had tried to convince her to stay. Hazel’s response?

_‘You have your battles to fight, and I have mine.’_

There were only a handful of people – mostly from that time – who’d known who Hazel Jones was.

Howard had told Maria about her before they’d been married.

After getting changed, the two of them walked out of the room and headed downstairs. From the look of the place, Howard would guess that Hazel had ended up marrying an archaeologist of some type. The sound of Hazel’s voice as she talked to someone else led Howard and Maria to the dining room where she was talking to a young sun-tanned brunette woman who looked older than the man from before.

‘That’s better,’ Hazel said, when she said them. ‘You don’t look like you just stumbled out of a car accident.’

The brunette snorted.

Hazel smiled. ‘This is one of my granddaughters, Sharee.’

Sharee grinned at them and picked up the folder on the table. ‘And this is the portfolio on Tony.’

‘Thank you.’ Howard took the folder and opened it up. Maria looked at it over his shoulder. It started off with the early details. The kid had stepped into the CEO’s position at 21. The condescending tone of various papers did not last long. Within a few short years, Tony had taken his little American company and turned it into a multi-billion dollar international giant of industry.

A small group first began to form around him. After his old friend, Rhodey, there was a former amatuer boxer called Harold “Happy” Hogan who, officially, was the head of SI’s security. In the end, though, it seemed he could be counted among the few of Tony’s friends, giving his behaviours around the boy and the fact that the man had begun, at one stage, teaching the boy how to box. The third person was a woman who first came to the media’s attention as a new PA of Tony’s.

There had been bets almost on how long she would last (seemed Tony was as bad for PAs and secretaries as Howard had been at his age) but not only did this woman defy the odds, she’d become feared in the business world. A few had even made testimonies that this woman’s most threatening features were here “shark smile” and her high heels.

‘Pepper Potts,’ Howard mused, taking note of the name.

‘Virginia Potts,’ Sharee said. ‘She grew up in a small town about 20 minutes out of New Haven.’ She jerked her thumb. ‘Her first job was at a cafe we like to frequent. That’s how we got Tony’s actual phone number rather than the company one.’

Made sense. Howard continued reading, moving to the dining room table. He set it down so Maria could sit next to him and read along. For fifteen years after, nothing of any true note happened to Tony. He was given two nicknames: The Da Vinci of Our Time ( _‘Absolutely ridiculous – I don’t paint.’_ ) and The Merchant of Death (the anti-gun crowd, no doubt).

Then came 2008. Howard’s heart froze as he read the evidence and details of Obadiah Stane committing three betrayals against Tony, each with the attempt to kill him. Tony survived each time and, in the end, he had Miss Potts overload the Arc Reactor to kill that damn traitor. And S.H.I.E.L.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D. who had been given specific instructions to _keep the hell away_ from Tony) had started trying to initiate contact.

Tony outdid himself here, though. He’d created two marvels of engineering in a cave with a box of scraps. A terrifying thought was that maybe Tony just worked better when his life was at stake. Maybe the thing that allowed him to create these marvels of engineering was his _need_ of them.

And Tony continued to prove himself.

Anton Vanko’s crazy and vengeful son and pallidium poisoning? Empathy and Starkanium – with S.H.I.E.L.D. making a fucking power play and sending in a Godforsaken Black Widow. If he saw that bitch, she’d get a slug between the eyes.

They found Steve in the ice, alive and in good health, but then he was a complete dick to Tony? Howard didn’t get what his problem was? Maybe Steve didn’t respond well to competition. God knew he had none in the 40s. Howard didn’t trust S.H.I.E.L.D. psych eval on him either. No one woke up to find seventy years passed and everyone they knew dead and come out of it smelling like roses.

When Howard read the incident surrounded Aldrich Killian, he had a reread it. How could a businessman be that _juvenile_? He was like a five year old throwing a temper tantrum. Lord, even Tony hadn’t been that bratty as a kid. On the other hand, Killian had proven once-and-for-all that Tony _didn’t_ need the suit. If he could survive against pyrokinetics without it, it stood to reason that the thing was useful but not necessary.

The following year had Howard reading once, and again, three times.

‘...What...kind...of...idiot....?’

‘I guess you’re up to the data-dump then,’ Hazel said, sipping her tea.

Howard went to rub the bridge of his nose and then flinched back. The space was still tender. His disbelief and terror at finding out that HYDRA had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. since the beginning had quickly been swallowed by shock and horror at the “Great” Captain America’s response to the situation. Did he not understand what it meant to download something onto a world wide network.

The description of the internet in the portfolio was very clear and he’d been living in this world for 2 years by this point. He should have been aware of it. That was not even mentioning the utter callous stupidity of dropping three helicarriers onto the American capitol city. They were probably still counting the dead.

‘Why didn’t he call Tony? He’d have been able to resolve the problem with minimal casualties.’

‘Well, I can’t say for sure but I have a strong suspicion.’ Hazel looked upat him. ‘Because that was also around the time that Steve Rogers found out that the Winter Solider was Bucky Barnes.’


	2. Explain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard and Maria learn about the events of Ultron.
> 
> It's time to leave for New York.

Maria was confused.

Howard voiced her first question. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’

‘Well, who did he explicitly express concern for when he and Peg were asking you to fly him out on that first mission?’ Hazel asked.

From the look on Howard’s face, the answer must’ve been “Bucky”.

‘Rogers entirely skipped out on the senate hearing that was held in regards to the data-dump, and the Black Widow displayed all the contempt and narcissism that we’ve come to expect from them.’ Sharee huffed.

‘Which is especially funny when you consider their tactics haven’t changed since the 40s.’ Hazel frowned. ‘But this one seems to be...particularly arrogant.’ She shook her head. ‘The point is that ever since, Cap’s been globetrotting and living out of Tony’s compound...’

‘Free of rent, I might add,’ Sharee put in.

‘Sharee’s sister, Shauna, is pretty good with computers herself. On a hunch, she followed the movements of both Cap and the Widow after the dump and found CCTV footage of the Widow handing Cap a folder which, upon magnifying the image, turned out to be a file on the Winter Soldier.’

‘You think Steve knows that he killed us,’ Howard said.

Hazel nodded. ‘And I think he doesn’t want Tony to know. And he’s putting out express effort to keep Tony from the information. When he goes globetrotting, he tends to take A: people who don’t have enough contact with Tony to want to share the details themselves or B: people who hold Tony in contempt so they wouldn’t tell him even if they did know.’ She leaned over and tapped the last few pages. ‘There’s one more incident you need to know about.’

‘How’d you get so much detail on such short notice anyway?’ Howard muttered as they turned back to the portfolio.

‘We’re archaeologists,’ Sharee said. ‘We collect history.’

That seemed reasonable. Archaeologist would not only be concerned with recovering data from the past, but also with preserving the data of the present. They probably had entire rooms in their home that were dedicated to archiving all sorts of news articles, reports, memorabilia and such. Maria turned her attention back down to the portfolio.

Then they read the contents. Maria was shocked that any of Tony’s AIs could have gone off the rails like that. He’d made his first one – DUM-E – when he was 17. Then, in one of the few moments he and Howard actually had a civil conversation, he’d repeated the process twice over, creating Butterfingers and U. As Howard had told him: once was a fluke, twice was skill, thrice meant you knew what you were doing.

Why would he suddenly create a homicidal one at age 45? He wouldn’t.

The investigation, in fact, after the fact had found that, over his life, Tony had built 6 AIs including those three – two of which were stand-ins for butlers so they had full access to the company, the internet, and all satellites. Regardless of his name being cleared, people continued to blame him. Maria couldn’t fathom why when everything pointed elsewhere.  
At the Maximoff twins, and their motives, Howard had paused. ‘This feels familiar,’ he said, tapping it. ‘It makes no sense, blaming Tony like that, but it feels familiar.’ He looked at Hazel. ‘Why?’

Hazel said one word – rather, a name. ‘Fennhoff.’

Howard’s eyes widened.

‘Who?’ Maria asked.

‘It was back in the war,’ Howard said. ‘The weapons I told you about – the ones I destroyed because they were too dangerous. One of them, a substance called Midnight Gas, was taken from my lab by one of the brass that commissioned me to make them. He ignored me after I said it was too dangerous and tested it on a small town. Fennhoff’s brother was one of the victims. He ended up blaming me for that and he tried to kill me because of it.’

Hazel leaned over and tapped the file. ‘And the exact same thing just happened to Tony. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff blamed him for their parents dying and then joined HYDRA to get the power to kill him. They allied themselves to Ultron until they realised killing the whole of humanity included them. Read the last bit.’

They did and Howard was soon up pacing and ranting.

‘I’ve heard of “benefit of the doubt” before but this is ridiculous! Does Steve really believe that just because she batted her eyelashes and changed sides that she’s sorry?! There isn’t a damn thing in that which suggests she might be. She hasn’t made any apologies! She’s offered no reparations! She hasn’t even damn-well publicly announced that she was guilty for any of that bullshit! She hasn’t even owned up to it to her own goddamn country. She’s been hiding away in Tony’s compound! What the hell is Steve thinking?!’

‘You want to ask Sharee that,’ Hazel said.

‘Giving him the benefit of the doubt,’ Sharee picked up without needing to be asked. ‘One could say that his multiple illnesses prior to injection led him to be sheltered by everyone around him lent him to the sort of naivety that would suggest anyone who swaps sides in the middle of a conflict has quote-unquote turned over a new leaf. But we’re talking about a guy who tried to fraudulently enlist into the army five times, so I doubt he’s that unworldly. Alternatively, he’s trying to sell the idea that if he can get a HYDRA volunteer to repent and become a hero, a word I use loosely, why can’t a brainwashed HYDRA assassin do the same?’

Howard pressed his lips together. ‘You know the sad thing? You’re probably right.’

Sharee nodded.

A redheaded woman, about Sharee’s age, stuck her head in. ‘Sorry to interrupt,’ she said. ‘But Pepper’s on the phone. How long do Starks generally go without sleep before they pass out?’

‘3 to 4 days,’ Howard said without even thinking about it. He presumed this must be Shauna. He looked at her. ‘Why?’

Shauna held up the phone. ‘Because Pepper’s just told me that Tony’s been up for 5 and he says he can’t sleep.’

Maria frowned. Howard froze.

‘Gimme.’ Sharee strode over and took the phone from her sister. ‘Pep? Okay, okay. Put him on.’ There was a pause. ‘What do you mean you can’t sleep? Did you try lying still for seven to ten minutes? Really? And you still didn’t get to sleep? Yeah. Yeah, I’ve told them. Look, we’re going to head to New York now.’ She nodded. ‘See you in two hours.’ She hung up.

‘What was that?’ Maria asked.

‘It looks like someone’s screwing around with Tony’s head.’ Sharee’s eyes narrowed. ‘But I won’t know for sure until I see him.’

Howard frowned, curious. ‘I thought you were an archaeologist.’

Sharee grinned at him. ‘Oh,. I’m much more than an archaeologist.’

***

Howard walked down to the garage.

Hazel couldn’t drive because she’d turned her license in ages ago. Howard’s own license would no longer be valid, and neither would Maria’s. That left Sharee to drive, so they were going in her jeep. The drive from New Haven, Connecticut to New York City was only about an hour and half so it wasn’t as long as it could have been. Tony could have still been living in Malibu.

Before they set off, Shauna (Howard was right; the redhead had been Sharee’s sister) had handed him a small handheld device that held footage of encounters between Tony and those so-called Avengers so he could see the visuals to what he’d read. Just in case he underestimated the problems, she’d said.

He had.

This was a group of highly-dangerous people who didn’t even seem to register that Tony was not only a civilian but, his genius nonwithstanding, an ordinary human being. Thor (Sharee and Hazel had explained him and his people as aliens that primitive man had taken for Gods) had lifted Tony by the neck with no thought and clearly no care for how easily he could have died. Steve had thrown the fucking shield – which Howard had made – at his son! If that armour hadn’t activated in time, Tony would be dead by the very weapon Howard had crafted.

When this was over, they were also going to sit down and have a very long talk about Black Widows. Howard should have done this years ago. The thing was it had been so long since he’d seen one, he’d assumed the program had been abandoned so why bother? Of course, Howard should have know that just because he couldn’t see it, it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Black Widows were to be treated with extreme prejudice.

The others were of no importance. Barton was a sniper so of course he’d be callous towards life and death. Wilson was clearly a cheerleader or an ass-kisser. One or the other. Hell, maybe both. Those two would get a simple eviction.

With such a posionous group around his son, Howard was grateful for those that had stood by his son. James Rhodes, from the beginning and through all these years. He was trusted by Tony and had his back, so Tony had gifted him with his own suit like the Iron Man one (and Howard was still salivating over the thought of such a sophistocated piece of technology, expecially considering where it had been concieved).

Howard hadn’t met Pepper and Happy yet, but he was sure he would like them. Happy Hogan, after all, was the one who had noticed there was something wrong with Tony and alerted the others – likely effectively saving Tony’s life. Pepper had become feared in the business world, first and foremost, and that spoke of a powerful woman wothy of note. She was also the woman that Tony had fallen in love with (which was enough for Maria to want to talk to her; enough for Howard to think her to Tony what Maria was to Howard himself) and she was commanding this situation in such a way that even Chester Philips, may he rest in peace, would be impressed by her.

Then there were those whom Howard felt pity for.

Bruce Banner...well, he felt sorry for him mostly. The man had been screwed over by the US military and then by the justice system and the American public. Then some little HYDRA witch sets him (the Hulk) lose on the civilian population of a major city. Then, to top it all off, the spider played her mind games with him while Cap pretended all those who died as a conseuqence of the out of control Hulk meant nothing; like his agency being robbed from him meant nothing.

Vision was an interesting case: born from an AI, given a body and consciousness and idenity of his own. Yet, he had all the human emotions that had caused Howard himself no end of trouble in his lifetime, and he was still learning to understand them. He was currently at Stark Tower (a different building from the Compound, thank God) and had all but confirmed what Sharee had said: someone was intentionally keeping Tony awake.

As a quirk of their genius, Starks could go without sleep for extended periods of time. Howard had done it, and Tony had done it. Of course, that meant this person (said person’s identity was obvious) could kill him in this way without ever causing anyone to become suspicious – if she hadn’t counted on people caring about Tony and being familar with his sleep habits.

Wanda Maximoff was a stupid and pathetic woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm pretty sure those of you who've seen Agent Carter know what's coming.
> 
> Wonder if I should put a Dark!Howard tag up...
> 
> Neither of the Starks believe that Ultron was Tony's screw-up, because they have _logic_.
> 
> Sharee's "much more than an archaeologist" is more of a plot device than anything else. It'll come up in later chapters.


	3. Home and A Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard and Maria return home.
> 
> Sharee heads off to Nepal.

Rhodey stepped into the lab.

Tony and FRIDAY had already given several cerebral scans to try and work out why Tony wasn’t sleeping. Sharee had shot him an email suggesting that Wanda might have been trying to kill him through sleep deprivation but she wouldn’t know for sure until she scanned Tony herself.

It was entirely possible. They didn’t know precisely what Wanda was capable of, but she was powerful. There was a reason Rhodey didn’t hang around the Compound too much. Her hatred for Tony was so thick around that place he swore he could taste it on his tongue, and it was revolting. Which was what he wanted to talk to Tony about.

Tony kept awake because his brain overworked – and that was what had starved off the effects. Now that he had his answers, he needed a new riddle. That was why Rhodey decided to give him this one. ‘Tony, you okay?’

Tony leaned up from his desk. ‘Yes, and no.’ He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I got another call from Romanoff. Apparently, she’s getting impatient.’

‘Well, let her wait,’ Rhodey said. ‘I got something you might want to think about. It’s about the Compound.’

‘Hm?’ Tony turned his head. ‘Is there something wrong with it?’

‘No. Not it.’ Rhodey paused for a moment, pondering how to continue. ‘I noticed something off while I was there. It was the same kind of feeling I got on the missions I flew, just before I had to take evasive manouvres.’

‘You should be safe in there though.’ Tony turned to his computer interface and started working, obviously trying to find what would trigger Rhodey’s self-preservation instincts.

‘You know how, when she called, Shauna said she and Sharee thought you were being influenced by Wanda and that’s why you can’t sleep?’

‘Yeah.’ Tony rubbed his face tiredly.

‘Well, it got me thinking. So I spoke to Vision. We worked out what’s been going on. It’s like they said, Wanda never gave any indication she felt any remorse. She doesn’t. She still hates your guts and she’s projecting. That’s what the feeling was. It was bouncing off of the stone in Vision’s head, but I have the feeling most of the others have been influenced by it.’

Tony raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that why a guy I’ve scarecely met thinks I’m a spoilt rich boy?’

‘I don’t know,’ Rhodey said. ‘But we might want to look into exactly what Wanda is capable of so we can find out for sure.’

Tony nodded and turned to his computer again.

***

Howard followed Hazel and Sharee into the Tower. Maria’s grip on his hand was tighter than usual. When they stepped into the elevator, the door closed behind them and instantly began moving. Sharee lifted her head as if she simply meant to address somebody at a higher level than where she was standing.

‘FRIDAY, how’s he going?’

‘Boss is currently hacking through HYDRA’s records of the Scarlet Witch’s powers. Col. Rhodes thought he might fare better if he had something to occupy his mind with.’

‘Not a bad idea,’ Howard murmured. After all, the thing that kept them awake was often the fact that their brains were focused on a problem. They needed to resolve it before they wanted to allow themselves sleep.

‘He’s not alone, is he?’ Maria asked.

‘No, Mrs. Stark,’ FRIDAY said. ‘Vision, Col. Rhodes, Mr. Hogan, and Boss-Lady are with him.’

Howard was slightly amused. ‘Boss-lady? I presume that would be Miss Potts.’

‘Yes, Mr. Stark,’ FRIDAY said, not without an edge of humour.

If anything, it looked like Tony had gotten _better_ at AIs.

The lift opened and they stepped out into a penthouse. Rhodes was directly in his line of sight and gave them a terse nod. He was obviously off-duty. A man wearing everyday clothes stood just behind the couch where Tony was sitting. The odd think about him was the red skin. He had to be Vision. Howard vaguely took note of the man sitting at the bar and surmised him to be Hogan.

The redhead sitting next to Tony glanced over.

But Tony...well, he turned his head slowly. Howard froze at the sight. His son’s face was drawn and pale. The bags under his eyes were just about black. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked like death warmed over. As soon as he saw them, he went to stand but Maria was on him in a moment.

‘No, no, no, you sit back down.’ She rushed over to him and pushed him back into his seated position.

‘I’m fine!’ Tony snapped, and he never snapped at his mother. He seemed to realise that at the same time as he pressed a hand to his face. He rubbed at his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, mom.’

‘Not your fault,’ Maria said, moving to sit on his other side. On the way over, she’d gotten a tablet from Hazel and looked up the effects of sleep deprivation so she knew exactly what to expect when they saw Tony. Irritability was rather mild.

Still, Howard would have to hold his tongue. It’d do the boy no good to get into an argument with his father while he was sleep deprived.

‘How’s it going?’ Sharee asked, walking over.

‘Well,’ Tony ran his hands through his hair. ‘I’ve got the data. I just can’t make heads or tails of it. I’m hoping its just because I’m not a psychologist.’ He stretched his hands as if they had been hit by a cramp.

The holographic screens in front of him turned to Sharee and she looked over at it. ‘Partially. The other part would be diminished cognitive ability. She must want to actually kill you. The last time you had diminished cognitive ability, you still synthesised a brand new element.’

Which was to say diminishing Tony’s cognitive ability was not easily done. This HYDRA bitch had to want him dead. Sleep deprivation would do that: slowly, painfully, but effectively. And, at the end of the day, no one would know his only child had in fact been _murdered_. An ache in his own hands suddenly alerted Howard to the fact that he’d been clenching his fists hard enough to leave crescent imprints in his palms. A plan began to form in Howard’s mind. _What goes around comes around._

Tony groaned and slumped against his mother.

‘Sit up straight so I can scan you,’ Sharee said, stepping through the holographic screen.

Howard looked at Hazel with a raised eyebrow.

‘This is the weird bit,’ she said.

Tony straightened, albeit sluggishly. Sharee crouched to his level and held a hand up. She folded her thumb, third, and fouth fingers in and pressed her index and middle finger together. An odd golden circle with a set of unidentified shapes and designs appeared in front of her hand. It spun for a moment before picking up a few tendrils of red.  
When Sharee dropped her hand, the gold vanished. She nodded. ‘Yeah, it’s malignant and it’s Wanda.’

Tony huffed and slumped against his mother again.

‘So, I was right then?’ Rhodes asked. ‘She is manipulating the others?’

‘I’ll be frank,’ Sharee said. ‘I don’t think it’d be that difficult.’ She walked back over to the data. ‘Not to sound judgemental, but I’ve heard Sam talk. Odds are he grew up in a low socio-economic neighbourhood and has a classist outlook.’ She looked at Rhodes. ‘Didn’t you tell me he didn’t have the highest opinion of brass, and you knew that because of the way he treated you.’

Rhodes looked amused. ‘You’re saying being prejudiced against a ranking officer is the same as classism?’

Wait, this Wilson guy was prejudiced against the brass? How the hell did he survive in the military?

‘No, but it’s a good indicator,’ Sharee said. ‘You’re one of the few who grew up in those circumstances who didn’t get the idea that rich people are rich because they got their money at the expense of everyone else.’ She scratched her ear. ‘In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out all three of them had that idea. It’d have been a piece of cake to amp that up to 11.’

‘So if that’s all she was doing, why did she make me feel uncomfortable in the Compound?’ Rhodes asked.

‘Because that’s not all she was doing,’ Sharee said. ‘Like I said, _they_ had these ideas already. But you didn’t. You know exactly who Tony is, so she would have tried to induce a negative perception of Tony on you. Funny thing about human minds: they reject information that contradicts what they know – it’s the same reason we humans spent so long convinced Earth was the centre of the universe. Your brain outright rejected the story she was selling. Your subconscious recognised the threat she posed and tried to alert your conscious mind.’

Hazel spoke up for the first time. ‘Resulting in feeling uncomfortable in her presence.’

‘Exactly,’ Sharee said. She then gestured to Happy and Pepper. ‘Had Wanda found out about the two of you, the same thing would have happened. The three of you just know Tony too well.’

‘May I then ask,’ Vision said, ‘about my immunity?’

Sharee grinned at him. ‘You have the thing that gave her those powers imbedded in your forehead. It has been protecting you.’

Howard frowned and cocked his head. ‘You seem to know an awful lot about this.’

‘Which reminds me.’ She pulled out her cell phone and held it up. ‘FRIDAY, would you please put the data in my phone – mental scans and all?’

FRIDAY answered almost immediately. ‘Done.’

Sharee pocketed her phone again. ‘I’ll be back in a moment. I have to consult with some people at the Kamar-Taj.’ She curled her hand into the shape with two fingers extended and swept her arm in a wide overhead arch. A human-sized portal suddenly appeared in front of her. Sharee stepped through and it closed behind her.

Howard looked at Hazel in question.

‘She’s a transcendent soul,’ Hazel said. ‘Her soul literally transcends death. Every time she does die, she gets reincarnated but retains the powers of her previous life. In the lifetime where she learned that, she was one of the founders of an order called the Masters of the Mystic Arts. They called it magic, still do, but now she calls it “a form of energy manipulation”.’

‘And the Kamar-Taj is their base,’ Tony mumbled, but still made himself heard.

***

 **Kamar-Taj, Nepal**  
‘This is disgusting,’ Dr. Stephen Strange murmured, viewing the data.

The Ancient One had the normal stoic look on her face. ‘The girl’s powers ought to be stripped.’

‘Sure,’ Sharee said. ‘If she survives whatever Howard Stark’s planning. Seriously, the more he found out, the angrier he got. And Starks aren’t exactly known for pulling their punches when it comes time to defend their family.’

‘How are the Starks alive again anyway?’ Strange asked.

‘Mad scientist playing God,’ Sharee said.

‘And you just happened to show up?’ Strange asked, amused.

‘You’d be surprised how much things happen to happen to Starks,’ Sharee said. ‘If you found out there was some higher power guiding the lives of one or all of them, I’d be collecting bet money.’

The Ancient One gave such a tiny smirk, it was almost missed. ‘Do you need anything further from us?’

Sharee interlocked her fingers and rested her hands on top of her head. ‘If Howard does what I think he’s gonna do, he’ll need some protections and we’ll need the fallout contained to a single room. Aside from that, no.’

‘What do you think he’s going to do?’ Wong asked.

Of course, Sharee told them.

The Ancient One just nodded with an expression saying “fair enough”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a headcannon that when Howard gets truly angry, he gets really quiet. Which is why he says next to nothing in the reunion.
> 
> I wanted to remember that the Ancient One is just that - ancient. She comes from a time where the law of the land was "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". So Sharee's suspicions (which are actually right) on what Howard's planning she would see as justice, whereas other people might be slightly horrified at least.
> 
> And, yes, Stephen is still in training in this. I haven't seen the movie :_() yet but the comics lists his training timeframe as 5 years, if memory serves. So, in 2015 he should still be training.


	4. The Formula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Howard digs out the formula,
> 
> Hazel and Sharee explain what it is.

Tony wasn’t sleeping, but he evidently was making an attempt at it.

Tony was curled up on the couch, his head resting on his mother’s lap as he tried to get through the stimulation going through his head. It turned out there was a neurosurgeon in the Kamar-Taj. Dr. Strange had come back with her, along with several others, in order to put up guards on the building and so that the head of the Master of the Mystic Arts – a woman they called The Ancient One – or the Sorcerer Supreme, could scan Tony’s head herself. With the help of Dr. Strange, who seemed to be a socerery apprentice of some kind, she’d come to two conclusions.

First, Wanda Maximoff was constantly and intentionally remotely stimulating Tony’s hypothalmus to force him into constant wakefulness no matter how much his body demanded sleep.

Second, she clearly knew what she was doing so she’d clearly engaged in this method of torture before.

Following that, Sharee had changed into a suit and she, Vision, and Rhodey headed to the Compound while the sorcerers (that was what they insisted on being called) had fortified the place. It didn’t block that woman’s powers entirely but it did help and Tony was able to achieve a light doze. That was what he was doing now.

Howard, Pepper and Happy had vanished off elsewhere.

Maria had a strong suspicion he’d gotten them to take him to one of his old labs.

***

‘So what are you looking for?’ Pepper asked. The more time she spent with Howard, the more she began to suspect that there had been a _lot_ of miscommunication between him and Tony. After all, Tony had just been a kid when his parents died. Kids didn’t tend to understand their parents until they stepped out into the real world.

Howard certainly seemed to care about Tony. He had the exact same disposition now as Tony did when he got truly angry: cold and expressionless.

‘A formula I created during the war,’ he said in a flat voice. ‘It was too dangerous to actually use. I ended up destroying it, but I always kept records of everything.’

‘So you’re going to make it again.’

‘For this circumstance, yes.’ Howard found what he was looking for. ‘Ah.’ He pulled a small file out.

All Pepper saw on the tab were the words, in nearly illegible handwriting (similar to Tony’s) “Midnight Gas”.

***

‘What did you find out?’ the Ancient One asked when the three of them returned.

Sharee plopped down on the couch. ‘Well, my first presumption was wrong. I was right about what she’s trying to do to Rhodey but the others, not so much. Turns out Romanoff, Rogers, and Wilson don’t need to be influenced that much because the latter barely knows anything about her and the other two have an agenda that lines up nicely with Wanda’s agenda. All she’s doing to them is inducing sympathy for herself and hostility towards Tony.’ She cracked a smirk. ‘But it turns out her skill set is very limited.’

‘Meaning?’ Strange asked.

‘Well, she can create perceptions, scew opinions, create hallucinations, and manipulate emotions,’ Sharee’s grin could almost be called machevellian, ‘but she cannot tell when her powers have been ineffective or interferred with.’

The Ancient One looked intrigued. ‘Do you mean to tell me that she has no idea of our involvement whatsoever.’

‘She doesn’t even know her powers didn’t work on Rhodey, Vision, or me.’

‘She tried something on you?’ Wong asked.

Sharee lifted her eyes almost innocently. ‘I may have goaded her.’

‘Yeah,’ Rhodey said. ‘I wondered why you did that.’

Sharee grinned. ‘Two reasons. One: it allowed me to scan her powers and skill level fully without her seeing the circles. Two: it allowed me to see exactly how far Rogers was willing to push that “she’s a kid” BS. Pretty far, it turns out.’ She nodded to him. ‘See, there was a logical reason.’

Rhodey chuckled.

***

It was Pepper who asked.

Tomorrow, the fun would start. Howard had said he got what he needed. The Ancient One had already placed protections around his mind so Wanda couldn’t do anything and Rhodey had informed Rogers, Romanoff, and Wanda that there was an important mission debrief in the morning.

Becuase Howard had said on the subject of Wilson ‘He’s insignificant. Don’t invite him,’ Rhodey had gotten the VA to call him back to Washington earlier in the day about a PTSD patient who would “only talk to Sam”. He wouldn’t be back until late in the next day at the very latest.

Sharee suspected it was also because Howard knew Rogers and Romanoff could survive what was about to happen, but he doubted Wilson could.

They were all sitting in the penthouse. Tony was dozing between Maria and Pepper, thank God for small miracles. Howard had fallen asleep on the other couch. Everyone else was sitting in various spots around the room, either watching Sharee teach Vision how to play on the X-Box or doing their own thing – in Hazel’s case, crocheting. Then Pepper asked, ‘What’s Midnight Gas?’

The question earned a knowing chuckle from Sharee.

‘Oh, so he did make some,’ Hazel mused. ‘I thought so.’

‘Well, what is it?’ Rhodey asked.

Hazel paused, seeming to consider. ‘Back during the war, Howard was commissioned by...I forget if he was a colonel or a general, but he was one of the brass. He wanted something to make soldiers stay awake indefinitely. Most of the sleep deprivation experiments hadn’t been conducted yet so we honestly had no idea what happened when you stayed awake too long. So, Howard tried it and he codenamed the projects: Midnight Gas.’

‘I would presume Midnight Gas did not fare too well upon testing,’ Vision mused.

‘Nope,’ Sharee said.

‘The lab mice he tested the gas on immediately and brutally slaughtered each other,’ Hazel said. ‘Unable to correct it, Howard declared the gas unsafe. Ignoring him, this dickhead broke into his lab, took it, and tested it on a bunch of townspeople. At the beginning, that town had a population of about 300. By morning, it’d dropped to 0.’

The looks of shocked horror she was recieving, from everyone except her granddaughter (who had heard this before) ensured total silence before Rhodey recovered.

‘I hope he was dishonourably discharged.’

‘Of course he was.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get started on the confrontation next chapter. ;)


	5. The Debrief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's get started with a warm-up.

Steve strode down the hallway of the compound, Natasha and Wanda right behind him.

Rhodes had said they needed to debrief. Unfortunately, Sam had been called away yesterday afternoon before Rhodes had called them. He was too far away to just turn around and come back. That was okay. Sam was helping other soldiers who weren’t as strong as Steve himself and the Howlies had been.

Steve slowed as they approached the debriefing room. There were a bunch of people in hoods and eastern garb loitering around the the hallway. What were they doing here? Who were they? How did they get in? Steve opened his mouth to demand answers to all of these questions but he was interrupted when the room to the debriefing room was opened and Maria Hill stepped out.

‘You were meant to be here twenty minutes ago,’ she said tightly.

‘Sorry we’re late,’ Steve said placatatingly. ‘Wanda needed some extra time and I thought it best we all come together.’

For some reason Hill curled her lip. ‘The rest of the Avengers are waiting.’ It almost felt like a dig at him. But why would she do that?

‘What about them?’ Steve asked, nodding to the eastern-looking people.

Hill narrowed her eyes. ‘Well, go into the debriefing and it will be explained.’ She brushed past them.

Steve sighed in annoyance and led the girls in. He was surprised to see, along with Rhodes and Vision, there were two others seated at the table. That was not even including the huge executive chair that was turned away from the table. _It’s probably Tony_ , he thought, barely suppressing the urge to roll his eyes.

Steve never noticed Natasha’s eyes narrow on the unknown woman, or Wanda start at the sight of her.

***

Natasha recognsed the brunette woman.

She was the same one who’d come with Rhodes and Vision earlier in the week to inspect the compund. It looked like her “inspection” was not quite what they’d led them to believe. The man on the other side of the turned executive chair (containing Tony, no doubt), was wearing casual clothes, had heavily scarred hands, and sat with an air of superiority. Something about his face niggled at her though.

It took her a moment to recognise him.

Dr. Stephen Strange. He’d been a talented neurosurgeon whose career had ended when he was involved in a car accident that had mangled his hands. He’d been called the best neurosurgeon in the world and his pride had clearly not allowed him to let go of that as he’d blown his cash on reconstructive surgery for his hands. Clearly, he’d ended up somewhere but Natasha wondered what in the hell he was doing here.

‘I thought we were here for a debrief, Rhodey. W—’

‘That’s Colonel Rhodes or Sir to you, Rogers.’ Rhodes cut him off, voice cold. ‘You’re twenty minutes late.’

Steve’s spine visibly straightened defensively. He levelled a disapproving look at Rhodey. ‘Wanda needed a little extra time.’

‘Then she should have started preparing earlier.’ Rhodes was entirely unaffected. ‘Now, let’s begin, shall we?’ He turned his head. ‘Dr. Strange, did you want to say your piece first?’

‘Yes.’ He stood up. ‘All right. Who was the complete idiot who profiled a man whilst he was dying of heavy metal poisoning?’

Instantly, Natasha’s hackles went up. She was the best spy in the business and he had the nerve to call her a complete idiot. ‘If Tony put you up to this...’ She found herself silenced by a condescending smirk.

‘Tony is currently on the brink of a coma,’ he said.

Wanda stiffened. ‘What?’ she hissed.

Strange turned his condescending smirk to her. ‘Yes. It’s not quite that easy for you to kill him, missy.’ Before Wanda could deny the accusation, Strange turned back to Natasha. ‘Intense migraines, confusion and memory loss, dizziness, impaired judgement, depression, and insomnia. These are all psychological effects that accompany pallidium poisoning in particular. You knew he was sick, and yet you still made your highly contestable profile. You are not a psychologist and you are not psychologically trained. You are not qualified to make any such profile.’

Steve opened his mouth, no doubt to step in.

‘Shut up, Rogers,’ Rhodes snapped. ‘Go on, doctor.’

‘I’ve read that profile,’ Strange said. ‘Textbook narcissim?’ He chuckled mockingly. ‘If it’s “textbook”, it’s obviously wrong. Nobody can be called textbook anything. That’s an first-week intern’s mistake. Self-destructive tendencies?’ He scoffed. ‘As I said, impaired judgement and depression were symptomatic of the underlying problem. They do not make an attractive combination.’ He cocked his head. ‘Obsessive compulsive behaviours? I’m quite sure you don’t even know what that means. Obsessive compulsive behaviours are repetative behavioural patterns which happen as a result of excessive thinking. People with these behaviours are predictable. Tony Stark is a lot of things, but predictable isn’t one of them.’

Natasha raised her chin. ‘And his obsession with his suits? What would you call that?’

‘That’s called being a workaholic.’ The expression on Strange’s face and his tone of voice made it seem like he was laughing at her. ‘It’s not any kind of obsessive compulsive behaviour. You came in, thinking you already knew who he was and you allowed that to compromise your entire report.’ He smirked again. ‘That is, if you were even qualified to make one in the first place.’

Natasha sneered. ‘I’m the Black Widow.’

‘Yes.’ Strange straightened up. ‘One of the best killers in the world. But, these days, that’s all you’re really good at: killing. Whether you realise it or not, being a murderer for hire is worse than having once been a legal weapons manufacturer.’ That said, he turned and walked out of the room.

Smarmy bastard probably was counting on the others with Rhodes to protect his back.

As he stepped out, there was applause. Natasha ground her teeth.

Steve went to open his mouth again but, again, Rhodes interrupted him. ‘Now, to business.’

‘Hang on, Rhodes, you can’t just...’

‘Wounded egos come later, Mr. Rogers,’ Rhodes snapped. ‘And I told you, you are to call me Colonel or Sir. If you want to play the part of a soldier, then you’ll have to learn to behave like one.’

Steve drew back, stunned speechless.

Natasha had a feeling things were about to change in a big way – and she didn’t like it.

Colonel Rhodes began to speak. ‘This woman on my left is Sharee. She has found something very interesting on one of her expeditions.’

‘Expeditions?’ Steve asked.

‘I’m a field archaeologist.’ Sharee shrugged. ‘It started about a month ago...’ She was cut off.

***

Suspicion started to flare in Steve’s mind. ‘So why did you wait until Sam was out of town then? Why not tell us immediately?’

She leveled him with such a glare that Steve felt himself sinking back. That look made him feel like someone very small again who’d done something very wrong. There was such authority in the look that Steve felt himself almost shaking. Then the woman spoke. ‘Mr. Rogers, I thought you were supposed to have better manners than that. Do not talk over the top of me again.’

‘I’m sorry, ma’am,’ he heard himself muttering.

‘Yes, I should hope so!’ she snapped.

Wait. What?

The person in the executive chair murmured something. Sharee nodded and grinned at them. ‘Live as long as I have and you’d cultivate it too.’

_What just happened?_

‘Why are you here?’ Wanda demanded. ‘Did Stark send you?’

‘Quiet.’ Sharee pointed at her. ‘You’ve been trying to kill Tony. All the while you live on his money and generosity. And don’t play the victim card on me. I’m far too wise for that!’

‘Leave her alone!’ Steve reached over to defend Wanda.

Sharee leaned back and folded her arms, eyebrow cocked as if she was supremely unimpressed.

‘She’s just a kid,’ Steve told her.

Sharee looked at a device of some sort. ‘I have her HYDRA profile here. She’s 24. Since when is 24 a kid in any society?’ She turned her head. ‘Which brings me to what I found on my last expedition. ‘Hey, Howard. How old was Steve when he was brought into your lab?’

‘25, I believe.’ The executive chair turned to reveal not _Tony_ Stark.

Instead, Steve found himself looked at a very-much alive and white-haired Howard Stark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of what I go in Stephen's speech (especially the medical aspects) I googled, so I apologise if it's not entirely accurate but I hope it is close enough for cricket.
> 
> The other apprentices were applauding Strange for his dressing-down of the Black Widow. What the group in the room didn't hear was Mordo telling them not to encourage him. ;)
> 
> The look Sharee gives Steve that gets him all contrite is actually a reprimanding look which she has perfected over her various lifetimes.


	6. Long Time, No See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to learn the consequences of messing with the Starks.

Howard was entirely amused to see the Black Widow stand in an instant, wide-eyed and pale-faced. ‘You’re dead.’

Howard just raised an eyebrow. The spider stared at his face before slowly sitting.

Steve began to smile. ‘Howard...I mean, it’s great to see you but how...?’

Stupid shit actually looked surprised when Howard glared at him. ‘I’m sure it is,’ Howard said bitingly. ‘And I’m sure you thought I wouldn’t find out the kind of things you’ve been doing to my son while I’ve been gone.’

Steve drew back as if slapped. ‘I didn’t...!’

‘You threw the shield at his chest!’ Howard snapped. He didn’t know why, but, apart for the occassion snap, the angrier he got, the calmer his voice tended to be. ‘You threw the shield _I_ made at my son’s chest while he was out of the armour. If the chestplate hadn’t activated in time, he would be dead right now. Did you even think about that?’

Steve stammered. ‘I...I...I was stopping him from doing something he’d regret later.’

‘So that’s a no.’

The HYDRA bitch opened her mouth.

Howard glared at her. ‘You wait you turn. I’ll get around to you.’ He turned his attention back to Steve. ‘Who made you judge and jury about what Tony can and cannot do. He has 45 years of life experience. How many do you have again? Oh, yeah. Not even 30. So explain to me how you’re wiser than him?’

‘He created Ultron!’ Steve insisted. ‘You...’

‘Ha!’ Howard smirked. ‘That son of mine has been building artificial intelligences since he was seventeen. He knows what he’s doing. You really expect me to believe that abomination was _his_ doing? Besides, who was it who said he wanted it studied?’

The impression of a landed fish was quite amusing, to be honest. Howard would have laughed if he wasn’t burning with barely suppressed rage.

‘Tony was sneaking around behind our backs...’ Steve tried to defend himself again.

‘You mean like you were sneaking around behind his back?’ Howard got a dark sense of satisfaction out of watching the deer-in-the-headlights expression he got in response. ‘You lived out of his property, used his money and resources, and belittled him at every turn. I’ve seen the footage. And then you were going to bring Barnes back here and have him live off Tony’s dime too, weren’t you? All the while never telling our son what’d really happened to us.’

‘It wasn’t Bucky!’ Steve insisted, jumping out of his chair. ‘It was HYDRA! HYDRA were the ones who killed you.’

‘ _Don’t_ tell me who killed us!’ Howard snapped at him. ‘I know perfectly well. In case you’ve forgotten, I was _there_. You weren’t. I had to live through it and you don’t get to decide it didn’t happen just because it was uncomfortable for _you_.’ Howard’s eyes narrowed. ‘I made the machine that injected you. I took you out on your first mission. I gave you your first functional suit and I made that shield. I created you, _Captain America_.’ The title was said with heavy scorn. ‘And this is your gratitude? You cover up mine and my wife’s double murder and treat our son like shit on the sole of your boot, all the while taking everything he offers you? Erskine thought you were a good man, but I suppose he was always a paranoid old man who knew absolutely nothing about personality types.’

Steve sat there, gawking.

Rhodey chuckled and said to Sharee. ‘Looks like you guys were right.’ He then stood up and left.

Howard was satisfied with that. He turned on Romanoff. ‘Okay, you.’

Natasha lifted her chin, in the way that Black Widows did when they thought they could manipulate their way out of a situation. ‘I’ve done nothing to harm your son. I even saved his life.’

Howard closed his eyes for a moment to fight off the coming headache. Then he refocused and looked her dead in the eye. ‘You think I didn’t hear Strange’s dressing down of you? He did most of my work for me so I’ll just say this: I am familiar with the Black Widow tactics. I have dealt with 5 of them and, I’ll be honest, your tactics haven’t changed that much in over 70 years. As soon as Tony’s recovered, I’ll be telling him everything I know about Black Widows so he knows every trick you have. I’ll be honest: there aren’t that many of them.’

Natasha’s jaw dropped for a second and then snapped shut. She glared stoically across the table.

Howard then turned on Wanda. She glanced down at her hands in confusion. Howard paid it no mind. ‘And, believe me, Tony _will_ recover. Because you’re not as powerful as you seem to think you are.’

Wanda drew back, obviously trying to look helpless.

‘Howard, she hasn’t done anything to Tony!’ Steve insisted.

‘On the contrary, she has.’ Sharee smirked and jerked her thumb. ‘Those people outside. They’re the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and they’re not very happy with Wanda’s flagrant disregard of the sanctity of the mind.’ She pulled out a nailfile and began on her nails as she addressed Wanda. ‘That’s why you were surprised to see me, isn’t it? You thought I’d pulled out a gun and punched a hole in my own head.’ She lifted her eyes, smirking nastily. ‘Because killing people you don’t like and making it look like suicide or their own stupid choices is acceptable behaviour, isn’t it?’ She arched an eyebrow. ‘Oh.’ Her voice dropped with sarcasm. ‘Wait.’

‘Leave her alone!’ Steve snapped. ‘She’s...’

Howard cut him off. ‘Rogers, you can sit down and shut up. She knew what she was doing when she volunteered for HYDRA so she could get the power to _kill my son_.’

Steve gave him a disapproving look. ‘She volunteered to save her country, Howard. How is that different from what I did?’

Howard stared at him a moment, like he was trying to believe what he’d just heard. He looked at Sharee. ‘Did he just say what I think he said?’

‘Yeah.’ Sharee smirked at Rogers. ‘You should write a book: How To Offend The Man Who Made You More Than A Malcontented Nobody In 5 Seconds Or Less.’

‘What...?’

‘At what point did she ever say she was trying to defend her country?’ Howard demanded.

‘She didn’t,’ Vision stated. Wanda looked at him like he’d betrayed her but he went on. ‘Her brother explained their reasons for hating your son but they never expressed any interest in protecting their country. That was the Captain’s own biases.’

‘Thank you,’ Howard said. He glared at Steve. ‘Now I’d thank you to shut up, Steve. Even if she was a child, it does not excuse her from the consequences of her actions. In this case,’ he turned his glare to Wanda, ‘your attempts to kill my son through sleep deprivation.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I’ll give you this, you were clever and you were sneaky but you rather underestimated Tony’s friends. How many times have you killed people like that? How many people did HYDRA tell you to torture like that? You’re obviously in practice, and you knew exactly what you were doing.’

Wanda’s helpless girl composure was completely gone. She was glaring back. ‘Your son deserves to die! He’s a monster!’

‘No,’ Howard said. ‘Tony didn’t volunteer for a neo-Nazi organisation for petty revenge when we died. Tony didn’t go on missions for HYDRA, torturing and killing people with a sadistic smile on his face. Tony didn’t go around mind-raping people. And Tony certainly didn’t unleash the Hulk on the civilian population of Johannasburg. Tony’s not a monster, missy. _You are_.’

Wanda jumped to her feet. What happened next happened fast – so fast Howard doubted Rogers or Romanoff could keep up. Howard grabbed a small device out of his pocket as Wanda got ready to fire her magic and tossed it at her. Sharee bounded out of her seat and richocheted back and out the door, slamming it shut as she passed through. Vision grabbed Howard’s shoulders and quickly yanked him through the closed door.

The last thing Howard saw before he went through was Wanda catch the device and promptly get a face-full of Midnight Gas.

As soon as they were through the door, Sharee sealed the last barrier into the room with a series of precise hand motions and golden circles.

***

The sounds inside the room were inhuman. Wong stood with the Ancient One. He knew she was from an era where this sort of punishment would have been considered true justice and well within a father’s rights, rather than the shock and horror that most westerners would view it with today. Wong wasn’t particularly concerned.

Howard Stark had only locked in with her the people he was sure would survive but had still committed transgressions upon his son. The one man who had but whom would surely be killed by such violence had been sent elsewhere. Besides, there were parts of the world where revenge killings were still considered justice.

Still... ‘Why did Stephen leave?’ He’d walked down the hallway and disappeared through a door.

‘Stephen Strange is a doctor,’ the Ancient One said. ‘Doctors swear an oath upon becoming doctors to do no harm. While Stephen is not doing the harm, he is still uncomfortable being around the harm being done.’

***

Steve hardly knew what’d happened. His body ached as he lay on the floor and he could barely move. Wanda had finally stopped. She now lay, face down on the floor in the trashed room, and didn’t move. Nat was a few feet away, lying in a pool of her own blood, but she was still audibly breathing.

The door opened.

The easterners walked in first. They wrapped Wanda up in some kind of sheets and carried her away. Was she dead? ‘Hey!’ Steve yelled, despite the pain in his chest. ‘What are you doing? Where are you taking her?’ But they ignored him and just walked out.

Then Dr. Strange walked in with a medical bag over his shoulder, Hill following after. He said nothing to Steve, ignoring his questions as he administered basic first aid. He did, however, talk to Hill. He sprouted off a lot of big words that were obviously used to make him sound smarter than everyone else (he was just like Tony in that way). But Hill took down everything he said. Then they moved to Nat where they repeated the process.

Then Howard, Sharee, and Rhodey walked back in. Howard hung up his cell phone.

‘Howard,’ Steve croaked out, ‘what did you do?’

‘What I did?’ Howard cocked an eyebrow. ‘I just did to her what she was trying to do to Tony. And now Tony is free of her influence. He’s finally able to sleep properly.’

Sharee and Rhodes grinned at each other.

‘I might want to monitor him,’ Dr. Strange said from where he was finishing up with Nat. ‘After being kept awake that long, he’s liable to slip into a coma.’

‘Of course, Dr. Strange,’ Howard said. ‘Thank you.’

‘But Wanda was...’

‘Wanda was your precedent for getting Barnes out of trouble, yes.’ Howard spoke with an air of boredom. ‘But if you hadn’t resisted this new century and actually taken the time to learn about the advances in law and psychology, not to mention politics, you’d have realised that bringing a homicidal maniac onto a superhero team was not necessary.’ He nodded to the brunette with him. ‘Oh, well, I guess Sharee’s grandmother was right all along.’

Steve was so stunned he could only manage. ‘Right...about what?’

‘Heroes don’t exist,’ Sharee said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't remember precisely who told Stephen Strange off for getting upset at doing harm in the movie.
> 
> The sorcerers came in to get rid of Wanda's body so her powers can't ever be replicated.
> 
> And, yes, at the end Howard was talking to Maria on the phone, getting an update on Tony's condition.


	7. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens next?

Maria sat in the suite, watching the news channel.

Her son was all right again. Dr. Strange had, as promised, kept an eye on him while his body caught up on its missed sleep before returning to the Kamar-Taj. When she and Pepper had released HYDRA’s profile on the Scarlet Witch to the public, Maria had seen the consequences for Rogers coming a mile away.

Sure enough, here he was, trying to claim that Wanda Maximoff was an innocent victim.

_‘But, Captain. Her psychological profile shows her to be a psychopath.’_

_‘Well, the psychological profile is wrong!’_ Rogers insisted.

The problem was that even HYDRA used trained psychologists. And the man clearly had no idea how to handle the press. Was this another thing that Tony had done for him?

_‘What evidence do you have to support that?’_

_‘She was a sweet girl who lost her whole family. She was lost and confused. She needed my help.’_

_‘Captain, it is clearly stated in the report on her powers that Miss Maximoff was capable, and even proficient at, neuro-electric interfacing. For those of us who don’t understand the jargon, that means should could manipulate a person’s mind. How do we know she didn’t manipulate your mind to make you sympathetic to her? To have Captain America vouch for her so she could escape the consequences of her crimes?’_

That was the thing. Nobody could know that.

_‘She wouldn’t do that! She was a misguided kid and Howard Stark killed her!’_

Maria nearly laughed out loud as the room exploded. Howard and her resurrection was kept entirely quiet, except for very few individuals. So how could a man, dead for 24 years, have killed Wanda Maximoff?

In the end, his claims that it was Howard Stark was viewed as evidence that she had gotten her claws deep into Captain America and caused delusions. She’d certainly died. She’d gone crazy and died. Most people believed she’d been aiming for the image of Tony Stark but, because of how unbalanced she was, she’d ended up showing Rogers and Romanoff his late father instead.

Her cause of death was listed as a power malfunction.

Officially, it was stated that after Tony himself was freed from Maximoff’s powers by her head, he’d kicked the rest of the Avengers out of the tower. Curious hackers had gone looking for answers and had stumbled across the treatment Tony had recieved at the hands of his former teammates. They then, very helpfully, released the information to the public. It was then concluded that Maximoff had simply been the last straw.

Romanoff’s profile was also released, and immediately criticised by all credible sources as she had no training in psychology. And that was before Pepper released the information that, at the time the profile was made, Tony had been suffering from pallidium poisoning from his Arc Reactor. Romanoff was viciously denounced by every psyhcologist and neurolgic expert for the very same reasons Dr. Strange had given when he’d given her that dressing-down.

Overall, things had turned out wonderfully.

Maria just wished Tony would hurry up and marry Pepper.

_Then again, it took Howard years to propose to me._

***

Clint was actually kind of grateful.

Laura had worked it out first. Embarrassing, seeing as it was done to him but there you go. After Clint retired he’d been getting steadily more and more angry. Then, suddenly, it stopped. The anger vanished into thin air. When Nat had called him, upon being evicted from the compound, she had said something that had made Clint think Wanda’s temper had steadily vanished. And Laura had worked out the connection.

‘She was funnelling her anger into you.’

It was really obvious now that you thought about it. Telepathic girl, no problem mind-raping people. He feels guilty for her brother, who he hardly knew, dying (he’s a sniper for crying out loud!) and then he retires out of the blue. He gets angrier, and she gets calmer. Of course she was funnelling her anger into Clint.

The anger vanished with her death. So, over time, did any sentiment he had towards the twins, and his guilt for Pietro’s death. Upon realising what had happened, Clint and Laura had changed Nate’s middle name. He shouldn’t have to grow up with that Witch’s influence. Even if he never knew, Clint would.

Whoever killed her, Clint was grateful.

***

Hazel had never believed in heroes.

She’d been born a bastard in the pre-Baby Scoop era because her mother had an extra-marital affair and just shunted her into her father’s care rather than bring another man’s child into her husband’s home. Hazel had spent her childhood in one military base or another, being looked down on by “polite society” for something she had no control over.  
No one had ever come to save her from that and “hero” was a word used fairly commonly in military settings. By the time World War 2 came along, the teenager had classed the words hero and martyr as interchangeable. So, no. She’d never believed in heroes. And she’d never encouraged her children or grandchildren to believe in heroes.

Howard Stark had actually been one of the few people she’d met who had not treated her as lesser for any reason. And he certainly hadn’t cared that she was a bastard. He hadn’t classed her as “a child of sin”. It’d been an odd thing for her. Eventually, he’d become one of her best friends. Even though they hadn’t seen each other since the late 40s, she’d still considered him a friend.

And she knew he’d still considered her a friend too. In 1970, she’d recieved a letter from Howard asking her and her husband to be his son’s godparents and an invitation to Tony’s baptism. While Howard wasn’t overly religious (even at all), his wife came from a Catholic family so Tony did get baptised.

It was the first time she’d met Maria Stark.

Hazel knew why Howard had asked her, rather than the much closer Peg. The first reason was so Tony could get very far away from S.H.I.E.L.D. if something did happen. The second was that Howard knew Hazel could protect Tony in ways that Maria’s family could only dream, even if they wanted to. The third was that he simply trusted Hazel more, especially if it came to encouraging Tony’s intellectual pursuits rather than his physical ones. Actually, Howard knew Hazel could do a nice combination of both because he’d seen her balance the both.

So why didn’t she come in when Howard and Maria had died? He’d only been 17 and still technically a minor. Simply put, she couldn’t find the damn kid. Tony’s response to finding out his parents were dead had been to take off to parts unknown. By the time he slowed down enough for her to know where he was, he was 21 and taking over the company.

As annoying as the affair was, Hazel understood it. Besides, the look on his face after he’d woken up, found out who she was, and heard that story was amusingly contrite. ‘Oops,’ he’d said to her. ‘Uh...sorry about that.’

‘Eh, don’t worry about it,’ Hazel said. ‘You were a teenager whose parents just died. You were bound not to react calmly.’

In fact, it was entirely reasonable for him to want to run away until he couldn’t anymore.

And he did eventually come back.

Tony had turned himself, in the end, into the closest thing this world had to a hero.

But Hazel still didn’t believe in heroes.

***

Sam had gone to confront Rhodes.

It hadn’t gone according to plan. He’d intended to confront him for Wanda’s murder and for kicking them all out of the compound. If anything, Tony was clearly more obnoxious than ever. Every time he saw him on the TV, he had a big grin, overacted everything and, overall, seemed to be in a good mood.

Then Rhodes had glared at him. ‘Did Rogers tell you she was a HYDRA volunteer? Did he tell you that she volunteered because she wanted to kill Tony because her parents were collateral damage and she and her brother saw what they believed was an SI bomb. You’re ex-military, Wilson. You know how good their stuff is. Do you really think a Stark Industries bomb sold legally wouldn’t explode?’

Sam had been stunned speechless for a moment. ‘...Well, she couldn’t know that.’

‘And she didn’t listen to it. She tried to kill Tony, you know. Sleep deprivation. You know what that does to you?’

Sam had been stunned. ‘Doesn’t Stark have an erratic sleeping schedule.’

‘Which is exactly what she was betting on everyone to think, but I know Tony. His binges usually end with him collapsing in exhaustion, and that wasn’t happening. Two different master magic-users actually scanned him. Both of them found Wanda’s handiwork. And both said she clearly knew what she was doing.’

‘So she deserved to die?’ Sam demanded.

Rhodey glared at him. ‘You’ll find when you mess with Starks, they do not pull their punches.’ He inclined his head speculatively. ‘Tell me, did Rogers tell you why he welcomed a HYDRA volunteer into the Avengers? Or were you too dazzled by the fake legend surrounding a real man to bother asking?’

Sam had drawn back. _What?! I’m not...! Am I?_

Rhodey scowled. ‘Did he tell you that the car accident that killed Howard and Maria Stark was actually set up by HYDRA to cover up the fact that the Winter Soldier brutally murdered them?’

Sam’s jaw dropped. ‘But...that’s...’

‘Put your head out of the sand, Sam.’ Rhodes turned his back on him. ‘Captain America is a propaganda piece created for the War. Steve Rogers is a maladjusted, self-centred, and very flawed _man_. You should question him, not treat him like he’s the second coming of Christ.’

Later on, Sam asked Steve about the Starks.

‘It was HYDRA!’ Steve had insisted vehmenently. ‘HYDRA forced him to kill them! It wasn’t Bucky!’

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

***

Fury was partially annoyed, but also minorly amused.

Seems the Starks were back amongst the living, and Howard Stark hated Black Widows with a passion. Natasha’s attempt to get to Tony had ended with the old man tossing her out of a window – which didn’t help her now-permanent limp. Midnight Gas was a fascinating weapon but the old man had probably destroyed _everything_ on it by now.

She was a step away from useless.

Fury couldn’t say he was sorry to see the witch go. She was crazy and really needed to be put in a straightjacket. Dead was the next best thing. He was not, however, happy to hear that there was an entire order of magic-users that he hadn’t known existed and that he had _absolutely zero_ control over.

The serum in Rogers veins had healed him entirely, but Fury was going to be very cautious from now on. After all, Howard knew how to make the serum, so it stood to reason he would start developing an anti-serum – especially with the abusive attitude Rogers had always displayed towards Tony. The kid could say what he liked by nothing was more important to Howard Stark than his son.

And Fury had a strong feeling that Tony was learning that.

***

The wire shorted out.

DUM-E sprayed the fire extinguisher.

The two Starks jumped back and laughed boisterously. Tony had actually been pleasantly surprised. He couldn’t remember ever having this much fun. Of course, it helped that his dad could actually keep up with him. This particular project had started when Howard had asked what Tony had seen through the portal in the Battle of New York.

An admittedly large part of Tony was touched at the lengths his father had gone to save his life. Another part was amused at Howard’s stories of Black Widows – especially considering that dear old Natashalie had done everything that the others had tried. Damn, he wished he’d known this five years ago. He could’ve saved himself a lot of trouble.  
When Tony had said what he’d seen through the portal, he’d been shocked to find his father on the same page as him. Then Howard had told him about Woodrow McCord Jr. who, as a child, had along with his family been taken and enslaved by aliens. He’d escaped and returned to Earth, but his family hadn’t been so lucky. He’d spent the rest of his life fighting off that same race of aliens from the Rockies.

So Howard knew that aliens were real, and he defintiely knew how war worked.

One battle was not enough.

Howard had then watched the footage and happened upon the brainwave that the Arc Reactor technology might be their secret weapon. It had been reverse-engineered from the Tesseract and whoever had sent Loki was clearly using similar technology. Loki’s Glowstick of Destiny hadn’t worked on Tony because the Arc Reactor had been in the way. So clearly, they needed some sort of planetary shield that used this energy.

The fact that his father had actually listened to his concerns, added with how much fun he was having now, made Tony think Pepper was right.

There had been a lot of miscommunication between them when Tony had been young.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Baby Scoop Era - http://babyscoopera.com/home/what-was-the-baby-scoop-era/
> 
> Aren't humans great? #sarcasm
> 
> Yes, Howard _has_ destroyed the last traces of Midnight Gas.
> 
> Woodrow McCord Jr. is a comics extended universe character if you've never heard of him.


End file.
